Day One and UpWill both keep dated entries about your days. Day One is a journal; UpWill is a journal whose entries also keep your plans up to date.
What Day One does well
Day One is a journaling app with a long history: dated entries with photos, several journals, prompts and reminders to write, and a look back at what you wrote on this day in earlier years. If what you want is to write and remember, it's a good home for it.
What UpWill does differently
- Entries that count toward something. When a note says what you did ("40 minutes on the guitar tonight"), UpWill adds it to the plan it's about, with Undo, and keeps the note in My Diary as you said it.
- Spoken first. Hold the microphone and talk for up to fifteen minutes; the recording is kept with its transcript, and each note gets a short suggested title.
- Plans and next steps. Twenty kinds of plan with examples to start from, each with a next step; when you finish one, "What's next?" offers steps to choose from.
- A record without scores. My Life shows the days you recorded something for each plan, two weeks at a time. No streaks or grades.
Which one to use
Choose a journal like Day One for writing, photos and memories. Choose UpWill when your notes are often about things you're working toward, and you'd like those to turn into a record and a next step without filling in a tracker.
Using both
Journal entries exported as text or Markdown can be imported into UpWill (Settings → Import notes), each with its date; imported notes are kept as history and never change your plans.